Doug Tales 38: Ten Instead of Five

Entertaining angels unawares happened to Doug Mendenhall a lot in his life. He was generous with friends and strangers, as shown in this experience recounted in I See…Arise! (2016) on pages 8-10. Of course, the question Doug really wanted answered was, “How do angels do that?”

After Denise had been released from the hospital at the end of 1999, we didn’t have much money to do any extra things. That December we decided to go to Temple Square in Salt Lake City to see the Christmas lights on Christmas Eve. It was a great experience, and as I have mentioned previously, neither Denise nor I wore a coat; we were both on “fire” for those few months.

When we left downtown SLC the kids wanted to go eat at a restaurant. We literally had no money in the bank and very little on us. Before we had left home, we checked all our pockets and everywhere we could think of and found forty dollars. We realized that we could only afford a fast food place, so we went to Wendy’s in Taylorsville. We didn’t care about the fact we had little money. We were just grateful to be together as a family and have Denise home. It was around 7:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve. They were going to close the restaurant at 8:00 p.m., so we quickly ordered our food and sat down. The bill was $28 which left me with two fives and two ones in my pocket.

We were talking and having a great time; it was wonderful to be with my family on Christmas Eve. After we had received our food, a man entered the restaurant and walked up to us. He stuck a card in my face. I turned to look at him, and he appeared to be an older man who was down on his luck. The card stated that he was deaf and a mute, and asked if I would give him “$2 to $5” to help him out. I turned the card over and saw there was sign language on the back.

It was Christmas Eve and we were all in the Christmas mood, so I took a five dollar bill out of my pocket and handed it to him and told him to have a Merry Christmas. We then watched as he went to others in the restaurant and handed them his card.

As he left the restaurant, the Spirit told me to ask Denise if the man had a “white aura.”

“Hey Denise,” I said, “did that man we gave the money to have a white aura?”

She looked at him going out the door.

“Yeah, Dad. How much money did you give him?” came her reply.

“Five bucks,” I answered.

“You should have given him ten,” she answered back. I asked her why she felt I should have given the man ten dollars, and all she said was, “You’ll see.”

Later I talked to her about this “man” we had encountered at the restaurant. She said the reason he had a white aura was because he was a translated being that had come to test me and the others in the restaurant. She mentioned that the Lord knew we literally had twelve dollars to our name and wanted to see if I would part with some of it for a “beggar.”

It states in the New Testament: “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” (Hebrews 13:2)

The next day was Sunday. After church a man from our ward, Bro. Tanner, showed up on our doorstep. Dianne answered the door. Bro. Tanner was an older gentleman that had many severe health issues and did not have much money. He had to use a cane to get around.

“Sister Mendenhall,” he greeted her. “I was sitting in church today and for some reason opened up my wallet. In it was a fifty dollar bill. Now I never have any money in my wallet, so I don’t know where it came from. But then the Spirit whispered to me to take it to the Mendenhall’s and give it to them. So here you go. It’s yours.” He then handed the money to my wife.

Denise was right; I did see. I came home a short time later, and Dianne related what this dear man had said and done. I am sure the Lord smiled love at Bro. Tanner that day and welcomed him into His arms when he passed away a short while later. Our family was very grateful to him as it was money sorely needed for food.

Later Denise would tell me that if I had given the man in the restaurant ten dollars instead of five, the Lord would have sent $100 back to us. So there’s the reason she said that I should have given him ten dollars instead of just five.